She won more basketball games than any men’s or women’s coach in NCAA Basketball history. She made players great both on and off the court. She set a standard for excellence that can never be duplicated or replicated. More than anything else, this proud lady put both the University, the team that she coached and women’s basketball on the map and everyone wanted a chance to see it on television or in person. On Wednesday Apr. 18 however that amazing journey to greatness came to an end.
On Wednesday, Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball coach Pat Summitt stepped down after 38 seasons.
Back in August of this year, the 59-year-old Summitt was diagnosed with early onset dementia, a type of Alzheimer’s disease.
Former Lady Volunteer and assistant coach for 27 seasons at Tennessee
In her new role Summitt, according to NCAA rules, will be allowed to watch the Lady Volunteers practice and collaborate with the coaching staff on game plans. Summitt will also be allowed to sit behind the Tennessee bench during games, but she will not be allowed to actively coach the team.
In a statement, Summitt said, “I’ve loved being the head coach at Tennessee for 38 years, but I recognized that the time has come to move into the future and to step into a new role. I want to help ensure the stability of the program going forward. I would like to emphasize that I fully intend to continue working as head coach emeritus, mentoring and teaching life skills to our players and I will continue my active role as a spokesperson in the fight against Alzheimer’s through the Pat Summitt Foundation.”
Current ESPN Women’s College Basketball Analyst and former Purdue Lady Boilermakers head coach Carolyn Peck, who led them to the National title in 1999 said that Summitt “will be the icon that will be around that program. She is a great motivator. A fantastic teacher and she’s a great role model.”
The resume that Summitt put together at Tennessee speaks to why she was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame 12 years ago.
She garnered the most wins than any other men’s or women’s basketball head coach in NCAA Division I with 1098. Her record overall is 1,098 and 208. The Lady Volunteers under her leadership made it into the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament in each of its 31 seasons, the most in Division I history. Summitt’s’ teams reached the Final Four 18 times, a Division I record and won the National Championship eight of those times (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008), falling two short of the 10 that UCLA legendary head coach John Wooden won. The Lady Vols won 16 South Eastern Conference Championships (SEC) and 16 SEC Tournament titles under Summitt.
Individually, Summitt was named SEC Coach of the Year eight times (1983, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2011) and was named NCAA Coach of the Year seven times (1983, 1987, 1989, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2004).
“She’s just the legend that John Wooden is on the men’s side,” said Baylor Lady Bears head coach Kim Mulkey, whose team won their second Women’s National Title this past season and did something that the Lady Vols never did compiling a 40-0 record.
“Pat started coaching at a young age and one of us will ever pass her on anything that she has done.”
The style that has made Summitt a success as well as the team’s she has coach is a no nonsense make the most, respect and never take for granted the opportunity that you have. We are in this together win or lose. It is on you individually on the court as well as in the classroom.
A great example of this is from a story that Sports Illustrated writer Gary Smith did 14 years ago about Summitt and the Lady Vols when they lost a game in conference at the South Carolina Lady Gamecocks. When they returned to Knoxville, TN that night the players were ordered to report straight to the locker room and to suit up into the smelly uniforms that were in the trunk of a car that entire night. Summitt told her players, “Now you’re going to play the second half you didn’t play last night.”
It is those kinds of methods that Summitt would use to let her team understand that they are not just the standard of women’s college basketball, they are the, model. Every team that they play wants to defeat them. They have a target on their back and they can choose to accept the challenge and get better each day or fall by the wayside.
It is something that former players like forward Chamique Holdsclaw and Kara Lawson learned, appreciated and respected about Summitt.
“When you talk about women’s basketball and when you talk about the top teams, people are going to put Tennessee and there automatically going to think of her,” said Holdsclaw, who won four titles at Christ The King Regional High School, three straight titles at Tennessee in four years (1995-99) , was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1999 WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics and played 11 seasons.
“For us that had the opportunity to be around her and to be exposed to that environment is truly a blessing.”
Another former Lady Vol who feels very grateful for the chance she got at Tennessee and is very sad to see a great era come to an end is ESPN Women’s College Basketball analyst and current WNBA player for the Connecticut Sun Kara Lawson.
The former Lady Vol guard who played for the school from 1999-2003 says that Summitt’s exit as head coach at Tennessee brings to a conclusion the most impressive era in women’s college basketball history.
“This is a woman whose impact in her game will never be forgotten,” the nine-year pro and Olympic Gold Medalist said.
The same sentiments were echoed by former Vols men’s basketball head coach and good friend Bruce Pearl.
“When a young lady came to Tennessee
The success that the Lady Vols had in terms of how they went about the task of winning both on and off the court gave other schools and example of what it takes.
The best example of this is the University of Connecticut Lady Huskies who under head coach Geno Auriemma have made the Final Four 12 times with it ending in a championship seven championships. They have also won 19 Big East regular season titles and 18 Big East Tournament crowns.
“Pat’s vision for the game of women’s basketball and her relentless drive pushed the game to a new level and made it possible for the rest of us to accomplish what we did,” Auriemma said.
“In her new role, I’m sure she will continue to make significant impacts to the University of Tennessee and to the game of women’s basketball as a whole.”
The success of Pat Summitt is measured in more than just victories and the championships. It is also measured in the fact that the ladies she has coached have taken stock in their own lives or have learned to do so. A big part in being in her program that is mandatory is that in your classes you are visible literally and figuratively. A major example is that you sit in front of the classroom and not behind. Some would say why? If you think about it by being in front of the classroom, you have no where to hide. By being in the front you are visible and as a result, you know that being prepared in the classroom will give you the best chance to succeed. Just like in practice, if you pay attention, when it comes time for the game you are not shocked by anything that is going to come at you. You have focus on the task at hand.
To Pat Summitt, being prepared and making a commitment to being great is something that she greatly values when you really look at it. To her when you truly care about being special and you are willing to pay the price and not leave any stone unturned that is the measure of being great. It also allows you to see yourself as more of yourself and a part of something.
That something is a large number of victories and while that may not be the only thing that matters, it is what makes the difference.
Back on Nov. 4, 2011 ABC News Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts asked Summitt, “Why she still wants to coach?”
Her answer, “I want to cut down nets. I might get up on a ladder again. Wouldn’t that be neat?”
While her Lady Vols won one more SEC regular season title and two more SEC Tournament crowns, they never won another overall championship, which makes you appreciate and respect the eight they did win as well as the other accomplishment that they were able to do.
“You saw those players have those traits and they loved the tame of basketball, but they had a passion to be so much better and her tank never ran out,” North Carolina men’s basketball coach Roy Williams said about Summitt.
“It’s all about doing things the right way. Sticking to core values that you believe in and really demonstrating them everyday and also living them out,” assistant coach Dean Lockwood said.
“It’s one thing to speak them, it’s another thing to live them out and Pat Summitt has been a person who’s lived out her core values.”
If there is one thing that Summitt has shown to the nation and the world from her excellence in coaching is what Title IX, the 1972 landmark legislation that was signed by then President Richard Nixon.
It said according to Section 181(A): “No person in the United States shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”
It is because of this law we have the likes of a Summitt, Mulkey and Rutgers Lady Scarlet Knights C. Vivian Stringer, just to name a few head coach on the sidelines leading their teams to greatness, just as well as the likes of Williams and Pearl.
“Its just hurts me in my heart, it really does,” said Stringer, whose team lost to the Lady Vols in the NCAA title game five years ago.
“I feel so connected to Pat, as we’ve been together so long on the same journey as coaches and friends. This is really a sad day for me. I love Pat so much, but this isn’t the way her amazing career should end.”
This is not the way her career should end, but while this chapter of Summitt’s life is coming to a close, the lasting impact she has had on women’s basketball as a whole is remarkable. Above all, she made an impact on the lives of her assistants, her former players and the last group of seniors that played for her.
“I wouldn’t be the woman that I am today if it wasn’t for coach and I really appreciate her for the opportunity and the blessing that she’s been in my life and I love her so much and I’m gonna miss her,” senior guard Brianna Bass said.
“She’s life a place in all of our hearts, especially the seniors leaving,” senior forward Alicia Manning said.
“She’s such a wonderful person. She’s more than just a legendary basketball coach. She’s a legendary person.”
She is a legendary coach and person and above all a trail blazer whose record, attention to detail and her relentless pursuit of greatness brought respect to college campus in Knoxville Tennessee and to a sport that is seen by many in person and on television.
“Pat understood the importance of being on campus and she made going to women’s college basketball fashionable and popular and that is one of the reasons the program developed because people were coming and then national television wanted to come look at women’s college basketball games because there were 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people in the stands saying its important,” said Pearl.
Information, statistics and quotations are courtesy of 5/18/12 5:30 p.m. crawl report from ESPN’s Bottom Line during the show “Pardon the Interruption” with Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser; 5/19/12 2 a.m. edition of ESPN’s Sportscenter from Los Angles, CA with Neil Everett and Stan Verrett; 4/22/12 10 a.m. edition of MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry with Melissa Harris Perry; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Summitt; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geno Auriemma; www.utladyvols.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/tennw-w-baskbl-mtt.com.
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